ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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This article covers content of WikiLeaks’ publication of U.S. embassy cables on WikiLeaks.

Country by content

Egypt
In a 2005 cable, Omar Suleiman, who was vice president during the 2011 Egyptian revolution, promised Israel to stop democratic elections in the Gaza area. After Amos Gilad, he said: There will be no elections in January. We will take care of it.

A cable in May 2008 said that President Muhammad Husni Mubarak would likely remain in power until his death due to a lack of free and fair elections. He told a U.S. diplomat that one should not withdraw from Iraq, but advised, in order to strengthen Iraqi forces, that one should find a “fair dictator” through a coup to rule Iraq.

Another cable from January 2009 describes the police violence in Egypt: it is routine against ordinary criminals and commonplace. It also attempts to obtain confessions. The police are poorly trained and understaffed. Violence against Islamist prisoners is declining overall. Muslim Brotherhood activists are tortured because they pose a political threat. The government denies the existence of torture. Since 2007, 15 police officers have been sentenced to prison by courts for torture and killing.

Furthermore, a cable describes the Egyptian blogger movement. This is estimated at 160,000 who write in Arabic and English. The majority of bloggers are male and between 20 and 35 years old.

According to a January 2010 cable, since 1967, Egypt has had almost exclusively emergency laws that allow the government to arrest people without charge and detain them indefinitely. The government used these mainly to combat terrorism:
In the 1990s, the government arrested thousands of Islamists citing emergency laws when Islamic groups carried out attacks. It is estimated by contacts that 4,000 to 5,000 prisoners remained in custody. The case is now being tried by a court.
At the end of 2008, emergency laws were used to arrest 28 members of a Hezbollah cell, 18 of whom were Egyptians. The cell was reportedly planning to attack US and Israeli ships sailing through the Suez Canal.
In July 2009, 25 Egyptians and one Palestinian were arrested, citing emergency laws. The group allegedly supported Hamas and helped in a bombing of Al-Khalili in Cairo in February 2009, as well as in the raid of a jewelry store. Based on press reports, the prosecutor has the case on the 4. Submitted to the Court in January 2010.

Cases unrelated to terrorism:
In December 2007, activist and blogger Musad Abu